High School CAD Class

[Barnfind]

Hi I just thought some of the guys on here would be interested to hear about some of the stuff going on in my high school CAD class. As of now we are building and racing RC short course trucks. This was approved by the school as fitting into our curriculum because it teaches us about engineering and business. Now you may be thinking how does it do that? Well for the Engineering part we will have to design and fabricate a piece of the truck for each race using the schools 3D printer. Also just the aspect of how the cars work and drive can contain engineering. As for the business side of things we had to create five different teams of which every person in the class was interviewed and five team leaders were chosen. After that the team leaders had to interview each student to decide who they wanted on their team. Also as a team we had to go out and get sponsors from local business or any business that was willing to donate to fund our trucks. Pretty cool right? Well i managed to become team leader of one team and for my truck my team and I chose the SC10.2 (I'm an associated fan so of course ) and the other teams all chose the slash 4x4 except for one other team getting the sc10 RS. I will keep you guys posted on the status of this if anybody is interested and post pictures of the truck now that it is completed. Here is the website the class made if you would like more information http://www.gearsracing.net

[jkelm24]

What a great way to apply the engineering and business concepts you're learning. I love this idea! Keep us posted on how things go.

[myfordcnc]

I'm glad to see this. Keep us appraised of the progress. If you need help in any way let me know.

[hondaman]

I wish they did these things when I was in High School.. We had a hand drafting class, metal shop, woodshop and automotive (yes 1992 called ).. Learning these things will be fun and you'll learn something.. I learned CAD and 3D programs in Architecture school (Go SCI Arc!! ) and have done a lot of 3d printing and CNC stuff myself..

If you need any help, post it up in here.. I'm interested to see how this turns out.. Good luck and have fun!!

Shawn

[GreenHell]

Sound's like a fun project. I was lucky to attend a HS that had a lot of great vocational programs, its the main reason I have a career in engineering.

[Barnfind]

Thanks for the support in this event. As of now for the car I have a castle SV3 with 4600kv motor with an 18t pinion and I think an 84t spur but not sure. It seems like it could do more though so I was thinking of going to a 17t pinion or maybe a 16t what are your opinions? also I have never dealt with a slipper like this so im not to sure on how to set it up and adjust it any advice on that would be good. Below are a few pictures of the truck with street tires for the first race. Also what tires do you recommend for a truck like this that are a reasonable price as my funds are almost gone and I am having a lot of trouble getting any more donations in my town. It will be on a dirt track made by me and a few of the other students do not the greatest race surface in the world. If you have any questions about the truck or any advice please let me know. Sorry for the bad pictures they are taken with my phone

[jkelm24]

Pinion T count and tires:

Some additional detail might get the response you're looking for.

Is your track small and tight, or is it open and fast? If it's small and tight, a smaller pinion might give you some needed acceleration between your tight corners. If it's more wide open, a larger pinion will give you higher speeds on the straights. Pinions are relatively cheap, so your budget might allow for a few different options to experiment with.

What is the dirt condition? Is it hard pack, or loose and lumpy? This might help with your tire selection.

Slipper is also going to be partially tied to the pinion you use, as the applied torque will differ. I'm sure others on the forum can provide a good 'starting' point.

Toss out all the details you can. I'm sure many on the forum will enjoy providing feedback! We all geek-out on RC here!

[Daryl Lane]

With the Power Clutch slipper we come up with this for adjustment it's simple and easy to do - just don't let your mom or wife see you do it!

We always set up the slipper to slip for 3 to 4 feet on a carpeted surface no mater what motor your running. As the mod motors got hotter and hotter we would increase the length it slipped. We used our office floor (short industrial carpet). Pretty sure shag will not work.

Idea is that on the dirt with less traction it will not slip as much and this starting point set at the slipper will give you enough slippage to not over spin the tire loosing too much traction.

Another thing to keep in consideration is that the slipper is a good safety feature to save the gears in jumps. The motor/tires will always speed up in the air so that when it land your truck will always be going much slower in the tire rotation speed. This causes a gear load shock to go through the whole drive system and the weakest part will fail sooner or later, a looser set slip can save this part longer.

As far as cad design 3D modeling and 3D printing I love it, when I get into a project it is more like playing a good video game then work!

Currently designing injection molds, punch dies and winch equipped replacement front bumpers for full size US 3/4 ton trucks. My son Adam just got accepted into SD State for Mechanical Engineering he has 2 years to go in the 5 year program. Been doing all the other classes in a JC to save money. He is working part time in a machine shop doing QC measuring down to .0001" on some parts.

Point is your getting a great start in a field with a lot of room to go in a lot of different ways - designing parts for R/C cars is great because they're small and easy to test fit and install and then change as needed. Full size bumpers cannot be 3D printed but it is cool to see laser cut metal bent up to look like a solid work 3D model.

[85Edinger]

Hello Barnfind! It's good to see that I'm not the only high school student on this site.
That is a really cool project.
I'm currently learning CAD through Project Lead the Way, but we're not doing anything quite that awesome.
Good luck.